Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cultural Models of Riparian Land Use and Management: Environmental Decision-Making and Behavior in Southern Appalachia

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University of Georgia doctoral student Sakura Evans, under the supervision of Dr. Ted Gragson, will conduct research on the role of culture in decision-making and behavior by examining intra-community patterns of management and decision-making among landowners in Southern Appalachia. Riparian zones (areas near waterways) are critical areas for habitat preservation, yet urbanization, agriculture, and household land use practices are resulting in the degradation of riparian ecosystems. Past research has focused on the impacts of human land use on stream and riparian health but has overlooked the cognitive processes informing decision-making and behavior that result in riparian degradation. Efforts focused solely on repairing degradation without understanding the causes will ultimately fail. To investigate the cultural models underlying landowners' decisions regarding their riparian property, Evans' research will use qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. Ethnographic methods will include semi-structured interviews with landowners, land-use histories, walking tours of streams and riparian zones, and socio-demographic data collection. Textual analysis of interview material and field notes will inform a culturally contextualized social survey designed to elicit landowners' opinions of riparian conditions, perceptions of riparian degradation, and support for riparian protection.This research will contribute to a greater understanding of the variability found within culture, while also uncovering the shared cultural models of the natural environment within a community. The project will also support landowners' preferences for riparian protection and management, necessary for reversing harmful land use practices at the household level, while also protecting water quality and quantity at the regional level. This research will also contribute to the analysis of regional socio-ecological processes within the scope of the 2008-2014 objectives of the Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Research Program (DEB-0823293).